Constantly monitoring Covid situation in states where schools have reopened

New Delhi, Aug 24 (UNI) Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Tuesday said the Kejriwal government is constantly monitoring the Covid situation in the states where schools have been physically reopened for children.

“We are constantly monitoring the Covid-19 situation in Delhi and also observing the situation of other states that have reopened schools. Kejriwal Government is determined to provide a safe and healthy environment to the people of Delhi,” he said while interacting with reporters.

The Kejriwal government will soon decide on reopening the schools after a committee set-up by Delhi Disaster Management Authority’s (DDMA) will submit a report on the strategy for reopening schools, colleges and educational institutions to the offices of the chief minister (CM) and Lieutenant Governor (LG) on August 25.

Currently, the Delhi government has only allowed the students of classes 10, 11 and 12 to visit schools for admission and board-exam related activities.

The threat of the third wave whose hypothesis claim that it will affect the children particularly is proving a deterrent in deciding the fate of school-going children. Delhi government along with many other states are skeptical and fearful of the scenario that may emerge once the school reopens.

The latest report by the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) on the vulnerability of children to the third wave of Covid-19 also highlighted that there is no biological evidence to suggest that the current and new Delta Plus variants of Covid will affect children more disproportionately than adults.

The institute suggested in its report that schools should remain open with health protocols in places where no cases of Covid or only ‘sporadic cases’ have been reported.

The experts have been suggesting to reopen schools since there is no evidence that the upcoming wave would hit the children, particularly whereas the prolonged closure of schools is severely impacting the mental and physical development of the children.

Dr Chandrakant Lahariya, noted epidemiologist and public health system expert, said that there is enough evidence to conclude that the risk of children developing moderate to severe disease is extremely low but they pay dearly for school closures in learning and nutrition loss.

Lahariya called the situation in Delhi tragic since everything is thrown open as before the pandemic but the schools.

“The difference between the start of the pandemic and now, seventeen months later, is that now we understand COVID-19 enough to reopen schools. Children, even when confined to home, developed coronavirus/ SARS CoV2 infection at nearly the same rate as adults. Infection alone is not of concern but moderate to severe disease is. We now know that the risk of children developing moderate to severe disease is extremely low – hundreds, thousands of times lower than in adults,” he explained.